Artoo-Detoo had seen the fall of the Republic, the rise of tyrants, the destruction of a friend. In the early days he may have, once or twice, toyed with the idea of requesting a factory reset. Certainly it seemed to have done wonders for Threepio, who was going about his duties cheerfully enough despite lingering anxiety problems.

He stuck the notion of getting his memory wiped right in the recycling bin the day Senator Bail Organa brought a dark-haired, dark-eyed child aboard the Tantive IV.

Artoo may have made a bit of a fool of himself, following the little girl around making cooing noises. Leia, for her part, didn't seem to mind much, bossing Artoo about with the unthinking authority of a royal daughter and decorating him with cartoon stickers. The Senator wasn't thrilled when one of those stickers blocked a vital component, but overall Artoo was as proud of them as Not-Droids were of shiny medals.

There were worse reasons to continue to live, he decided, and wrote Anakin's daughter's name into his code as First Priority.